BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Birmingham ended 2013 with a slight drop in homicides after an uptick the previous year.

The city finished the year with 66 slayings, down seven over 2012. While any decline is welcomed, Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper had hoped for an even steeper drop. A particularly violent two-week period in June, however, dashed those hopes.

"The year was really a tale of two halves. As you know, one homicide is one too many but the first half of the year was tracking pretty well until the last two weeks of June,'' Roper said. "It was unexplainable that we could go 10 days without a single homicide, and then experience 11 homicides in a two-week period."

"This caused us to end the first six months with a 21 percent increase,'' the chief said. "The second half of the year was much better when compared to 2012 and was actually a 28 percent decrease over the same period."

Roper said 2013 was an extremely challenging year for the department, and for the community. "We have experienced significant progress in overall crime reduction efforts with an 11 percent decrease in crime in 2012 and another significant reduction in 2013, but homicides continue to be a challenge, not just for Birmingham but many urban areas throughout this nation."

There were 73 homicides in Birmingham's city limits in 2012. Originally there were 72 recorded, but skeletal remains found in June of that year were officially identified and ruled a homicide in November 2013, adding one to the 2012 tally. Of the 66 in 2013, one was ruled justifiable. The Birmingham Police Department does not include justifiable homicides in their year-end numbers, but AL.com and The Birmingham News count all homicides. Of the 73 in 2012, five were justifiable.

In all of Jefferson County, there were 96 homicides in 2013 including Birmingham, compared to 95 in 2012. Shelby County recorded only four homicides, down from 11 in 2012.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office saw the biggest jump. The sheriff's office investigated 10 homicides in the unincorporated portion of the county in 2013, compared to five the previous year. However, its 2012 total was the lowest in almost a decade.

The Shelby County Sheriff's Office saw no homicides in its unincorporated areas in all of 2013.

JEFFERSON COUNTY

In Jefferson County, Bessemer saw a slight increase in 2013 after recording a dramatic drop the previous year. There were five homicides in Bessemer in 2013, compared to four in 2012 and 12 in 2011.

There were four homicides each in Fairfield and Hoover, three in Midfield, two in Homewood, and one each in Gardendale, Pleasant Grove and Trussville. Cities that had homicides in 2012 but didn't in 2013 were Hueytown, Vestavia Hills and Brighton. There was also one prison homicide investigated by the Alabama Department of Corrections.

The slayings included the death of a 17-year-old Bessemer teen, a 47-year-old man shot to death on a porch in Fairfield, an 87-year-old man in his Trussville home, and the stabbing death of Karen Shahan, the wife of a Bapist minister, in a church-owned house in Homewood.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigated 10 homicides in 2013, up by five from the previous year. Seven of those slayings happened in the Birmingham Division; three in the Bessemer Cutoff.

Half of those 10 killings were deemed the result of domestic violence. The most high-profile happened in April when Brandon Menefee killed the mother of his children, killed his little girl and left his young son for dead before driving to Fairfield, where he killed himself.

The other domestic slayings included the son of a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy getting fatally shot by his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend during a custody dispute; a case in northeast Jefferson County where a man shot and killed his girlfriend, and a slaying in McCalla where a man called authorities to tell them he stabbed his wife to death.

Of the five remaining homicides, authorities traced four to robberies related to drugs or drug money. In all of those cases, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian, the victim knew their attacker.

The final homicide of 2013 happened when a man accidentally shot and killed his uncle while shooting at a pair of party crashers at an adult birthday party.

"Certainly I wish we were reporting zero loss of life in our jurisdiction but once again domestic violence has a great deal to say about that, as does the illegal drug industry,'' said Christian. "We do everything we can on both fronts and will continue to do so. Until people learn how to gain control over their emotions and walk away, domestic violence will continue to be a cancer in our society."

"Domestic violence murders are the saddest and most heart-wrenching that we report on, and the most difficult to impact,'' he said.

As for the drug world, he said, it's no secret that it rarely has a happy ending. It usually ends in prison or death. "It may be quick money on the front end, but I have yet to meet a successful retired drug dealer."

The Shelby County numbers include two in Hoover, and one each in Pelham and Calera. All happened in the last two months of the year. In November, 32-year-old Jimmy Horton was fatally shot in what authorities say was a domestic incident. No charges have been filed. Pelham police Deputy Chief Larry Palmer said it's still under investigation and the case will go to a grand jury to determine whether charges will be filed.

Also in November, James Edward Sherwood was shot and killed in a home in Calera and his body taken to a wooded area off Elvira Road in Hoover. Two men have been charged in that slaying. And, that same month, 36-year-old Michelle Shepard was shot to death at a Riverchase apartment complex following an Iron Bowl party. Another woman is awaiting a murder trial in that case.

In December, a 40-year-old Clanton woman was fatally shot in Calera. The slaying of Lisa M. Langston happened at a house on Slab Hill Road.

BIRMINGHAM

In Birmingham, 31 of the homicides happened at a residence. One happened at Railroad Park, and two at convenience stores. The remainder happened on the street, or in an alley or parking lot.

Ten happened in the North Precinct, 15 in the South Precinct, 16 in the East Precinct and 25 in the West Precinct, the city's largest and most populated precinct. Of the victims, 52 were black males, seven white males, six black females and one white female.

"2013 was an extremely challenging year for our department and the community,'' Roper said. "We have experienced significant progress in overall crime reduction efforts with an 11% decrease in crime in 2012 and another significant reduction in 2013, but homicides continue to be a challenge, not just for Birmingham but many urban areas throughout this nation."

The chief said there is no rhyme or reason to the ebb and flow to the homicide numbers or patterns. For the most part people are killing people they know which makes it extremely difficult to prevent. "There is a growing body of research in the field of Criminal Justice that supports the premise that homicide victimization is mainly linked to risky behaviors or risky people,'' he said. "In fact, a person's social network or associations has a major impact on homicide victimization rates."

Deputy Chief Henry Irby, who oversees the Criminal Division, agreed. "We do not have a problem with random acts of violence in our city,'' Irby said. "The majority of our violent crimes occur when the suspect and victim know each other."

The homicides in Birmingham in 2013 ran the gamut: A 15-year-old shot in Railroad Park in March with hundreds of parkgoers standing by, a 2-year-old shot to death in his southwest Birmingham apartment in March, a 24-year-old mother killed by a stray bullet in Gate City and 17-year-old twin brothers shot in a home invasion in Wylam in June.

Roper said still police officials review each case for commonalities and variables and try to ensure they're doing everything they can as a department to reduce the self-destructive behavior. "We adjusted our personnel resources and strategies during critical hours, but will still need community support and involvement to have the greatest impact."

"We simply have too many young African American men killing young African American men over nothing," Roper said. "In their minds disrespect, or some other perceived issue is worth pulling a trigger but families and communities must stand up and say this violence is not acceptable in our neighborhood."

Roper said investigators still need more community members actively involved in general crime prevention, and specifically in providing information about individual homicide cases. "Our clearance rate is normally above the national average, but we still carry a number of open homicide cases where a single witness or a useful tip from the community would make the difference in allowing us to get a warrant and make an arrest."

Of the Birmingham homicides in 2013, 21 remain unsolved. "We owe the family members justice and one anonymous phone call can make the difference,'' he said. " Our detectives work as the voice of the victim so we must encourage and assist more citizens to come forward and cooperate with them on these open cases."

Roper said police have experienced tremendous success over recent years lowering both the crime rate and homicide rate, but realize there is much work to be done as a community. "It will take much more than the police department to overcome the challenges and socioeconomic factors that influence crime,'' Roper said. "We realize that at the end of the day, there is absolutely no substitute for personal responsibility. Crime is a matter of choice so as a department we will do everything we can to hold the perpetrators accountable and bring them to justice."